One Reason 'The Last Jedi' Is A Masterpiece? It Shatters Our 'Star Wars' Nostalgia

The Last Jedi shatters our expectations for 'Star Wars' in all the best ways.Credit; Disney/LucasFilm

At one point in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Finn and Rose go on a high-stakes mission to Canto Bight, a Monaco-like coastal city harboring the galaxy's super-rich and elite. The glittering casinos, the glitz and glamour of the wealthy patrons, all served to seduce both audiences and Finn. Canto Bight is mesmerizing and beautiful.

It isn't until Rose casts the scales from our eyes that we realize this shimmering city has a dark side. It's not seedy dens of crime or some Dark Side conspiracy. Rather, the city and its wealthy elite are rotten to the core. The giant creatures---Fathier, they're called---that race around the city's banked track are spectacular to behold. But their speed and strength comes at a cost. They're held in captivity where they're whipped and beaten. Children are kept in the creatures' stalls to look after them, slaves themselves.

Meanwhile, the city's elite inhabitants are all war profiteers, having made their fortunes selling weapons and ships to the Empire and the First Order. Then again, we also learn that they've sold weapons and ships to the Resistance as well. One after another, our expectations are toppled.

This happens throughout The Last Jedi, almost too many times to count. It's a movie that takes what we know and love about Star Wars and turns all of that on its head. It's wonderful, surprising and even a little bittersweet. But ultimately, stripping away some of the mythology gives Star Wars more depth, enriching the stories that came before and opening the door for even greater things to come.

When Luke meets Rey.

When Rey finally reaches Luke at the end of The Force Awakens, she finds him, a graying hermit in a self-imposed exile, living a life of solitude on a lonely island. He's bearded and mysterious, a far cry from the youthful Jedi Knight we last saw in Return of the Jedi, smiling at the ghosts of his past.

At the end of The Force Awakens we leave Rey, her face screwed up in determination, reaching out with the lightsaber while Luke stares back at her from under the folds of his robe.

What will he do? What will he say? For two years we've waited to find out.

But he doesn't say anything. Instead, he takes the lightsaber and tosses it over his shoulder before walking off without a word. It's a pretty explicit renunciation of what's come before. Specifically, it's an about face from the nostalgia and hype of The Force Awakens, a movie steeped in the mythology of Star Wars and the legend of Luke Skywalker. This is not the Luke we've been looking for, but it's the Luke we need.

Luke's lack of faith is...disturbing. And wonderful.

Luke has become disillusioned with the Jedi Order.Credit: Disney/LucasFilm

Luke Skywalker has changed from the young Jedi Knight we remember at the end of Return of the Jedi. There he had fulfilled his destiny, defeating the Emperor and helping his father find redemption. The world was bright and open and ready to be remade. The Hero, the Chosen One, had won.

Now, decades later, Luke is disenchanted with the Jedi. He's cut himself off from the Force and lives in bitter solitude, yoked to his failures and disappointments and burdened by his own celebrity, his damning legend. He's not so much inspired by his audacious new student, as a reluctant teacher who grudgingly agrees to instruct her. And when he learns the nature of her power, Luke is terrified, all his trauma with Ben Solo flooding back to haunt him.

To Luke, the Jedi were hypocrites and snobs whose arrogance and impotence led to their own downfall. And this is what The Last Jedi believes as well, that the Force is not the property of Jedi and Sith or any dynasty or family name, it's just "an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together." It doesn't belong to anyone. That point is driven home further in the film's final, surprising scene, when the young stable hand force-pull a broom.

Yoda doesn't destroy the ancient Jedi texts.

The return of the muppet.Credit: Disney/LucasFilm

Yoda seems to understand this. Rian Johnson's Yoda is once again a muppet. Gone is the militarized Yoda of the prequel films and gone is the CGI that animated him. The wise old rascal has returned, and it's only in his return that we realize just how much we missed him. He arrives just as Luke races to the ancient tree with a torch to burn it and the Jedi texts to the ground.

When Luke hestitates, Yoda takes matters into his own hands. In a surprising display of posthumous power, Yoda's Force ghost calls lightning down from the sky, cackling in glee and stomping his feet when he sees Luke's surprise. The tree burns and within it, we assume, so do the ancient Jedi texts. Yoda tells Luke not to worry. The girl has all the knowledge of the Jedi with her.

It turns out Yoda wasn't referring to some innate knowledge or power within Rey---she had merely stolen the texts before leaving to go confront Kylo Ren. We catch a glimpse of them later on in the film.

Luke and Kylo Ren each have a side of the story.

There are many things we don't learn in The Last Jedi. We don't, for instanace, learn who Snoke is or how he formed the First Order. However, we do learn more of Kylo Ren's backstory and how he went over to the Dark Side.

First, from Luke, we learn that when Luke confronted Ben Solo at the Jedi school, his pupil turned on him, bringing the temple down on Luke and leaving him for dead. He then killed the other students except for a small band who joined him (likely the Knights of Ren.) "You didn't fail him, he failed you," Rey tells Luke after hearing this story.

But this isn't the whole story. Kylo Ren tells Rey his version. In it, Luke comes to kill him during his sleep and he wakes up and barely makes off with his life. In this version, Ben Solo may never have turned to the Dark Side had his teacher not turned on him. Perhaps Luke did fail his student, we think to ourselves. Perhaps if he'd been more compassionate, more patient, he could have avoided all of this.

But in Luke's final, unabridged tale, we learn the truth. The Jedi Master did go to confront his student, and for a moment he even thought about killing him, but before Kylo had even awoken he had changed his mind. Ben didn't realize this when he woke and fought off his master, killing the other students and making his escape. In this version we learn that whatever Luke saw inside his student's mind was a darkness simply too damning to be reversed. Perhaps he wouldn't have turned when he did had Luke not gone to him that night, but he would have turned sooner or later. This is solidified later when he tells Leia that he can't save her son and she agrees. Her son died years ago, much like Anakin died when he became Darth Vader. Could it mean that Ben Solo could still be turned?

Luke's final selfless act.

The battle of Crait.Credit: Disney/Lucasfilm

Luke's final scenes in the film were among the most powerful in the entire Star Wars saga.

Luke the Hero wrapped up his heroic own arc in Return of the Jedi. His life since then has been one of sobering realization and disappointment. But he's not so jaded as to abandon all hope. A pep-talk from Yoda is all it takes to get Luke back into the action. He goes to Crait to stop Kylo Ren and save the rag-tag band of Resistance survivors.

It's just that he's not actually there. He's still on his island, hovering in the air, meditating while projecting his likeness light-years across space in order to distract Ren and the First Order long enough to allow Leia and her followers to escape.

While there were lots of clues hinting at Luke's deception, on first viewing it was tricky to tie them all together. We all noticed a handful of things that seemed out of place---Luke looked younger; why weren't his footprints red? and so forth---but we didn't necessarily realize what was going on until Ren's lightsaber cut through Luke without harming him.

But the twists don't end there. We're so relieved that Luke has succeeded in helping the resistance and that he's emerged from battle unharmed that we don't realize what's about to happen. After all, Luke is safe in a galaxy far, far away. It's when we see him staring off at the two setting suns, mirroring so perfectly the beginning of his heroic journey in A New Hope, that we realize something isn't quite right.

Like Obi-Wan before him, Luke's Jedi robe falls to the ground. Luke is gone, his final selfless act too much for his terrestrial body to sustain. Perhaps he'll return as a Force ghost in the next film? How could he not?

Before he passes, Luke gives us one final piece of information. In response to Kylo's boasting he tells him that the rebellion has just begun and, more importantly, that he is not the last Jedi. And so even the film's title is turned on its head.

The shattering of our Star Wars expectations may be most encapsulated by Luke in The Last Jedi, but the surprises and twists don't stop there.

When Finn met Rose.

Finn and Rose with BB-8.Credit: Disney/LucasFilm

As with Luke and Rey's meeting,the characters in The Last Jedi often have expectations of one another that end up complicated by reality.

Luke is not the heroic figure or wise old Jedi Master that Rey envisioned (even if he does come through in the end.) A similar dynamic exists between Finn and Rose. When Finn attempts to escape the Resistance ship, Raddus, in a half-baked plan to keep Rey (and himself) safe from the pursuing First Order fleet, he encounters Rose Tico for the first time.

She's in awe of him at first. Her sister, who we watch sacrifice herself in Poe's successful bombing campaign to take out a First Order Dreadnought, called him a hero of the Resistance. Rose, a maintenance worker who seems vastly overqualified for her job, shares that opinion. Her first impression of Finn is one of wonderment and awe even as he brushes off the notion that he's any kind of hero.

Rose tells Finn that she's had to stop several people from abandoning ship in escape pods just that morning---and then it dawns on her. Finn, the war hero, is attempting to escape. So she stuns him, calling him a "traitor." Naturally, that opinion changes over the course of the film, but it's interesting to see this shattered expectation play out. It's the same shattered expectations we experience during The Last Jedi, which takes all our notions of the Star Wars mythos and wipes the slate clean. It's no wonder that audiences are so divided on the film.

DJ is just the man he said he was, after all.

DJ is just a mercenary after all.Credit: Disney/LucasFilm

Later, when Finn and Rose go to Canto Bight in search of a master codebreaker, they're arrested for illegally parking their spaceship and escape with the help of DJ, a roguish character who tells them he can help with their mission. He's the one who reveals to Finn that the war profiteers of Canto Bight are selling weapons to both sides. It's all a machine, he tells the former Storm Trooper. Don't pick a side.

Later, he trades his services for a down payment---Rose's medallion that obviously means so much to her. We're led to believe that he truly is just a mercenary out for himself, much like Leia thought of Han Solo in A New Hope. But then he gives the medallion back, having only needed it to break through a security box. Maybe this character is more like the hero Han Solo than the rogue, we speculate. A thief with a heart of gold.

Later, however, when they're caught, DJ turns over his knowledge of the Resistance's escape plans to the First Order. It's just business to him, after all. He's less Han Solo and more Lando Calrissian but without the redeeming qualities. This gives the First Order the ability to begin slaughtering what few Resistance survivors remain in truly horrifying fashion---just when you think they're safe in their escape.

Vice Admiral Holdo was right.

All of this plays right into the conflict between Poe Dameron and Leia's replacement commander, Vice Admiral Holdo.

When Holdo takes over command we learn that her plan is to load everyone up onto escape transports and send them off the ship. She's even been transferring fuel from the main ship to the transports. Poe Dameron is convinced that Finn and Rose's plan to disable the light-speed tracker on Snoke's ship is a better plan and that Holdo is sending everyone to their doom.

So he organizes a coup, arresting Holdo and commandeering the ship in an attempt to shut down the evacuation. This, in turn, leads to Finn and Rose returning with DJ. When their plans are foiled and DJ betrays the Resistance, Holdo's perfectly good plan is ruined and at least half the transports are destroyed before she crashes her ship at light speed into Snoke's.

Another nice twist? Poe is relieved when he sees Leia return to the fray, mistakenly believing that she'll be on his side. Instead she stuns him with her blaster.

Leia survives.

Leia survives The Last Jedi.Credit: Disney/LucasFilm

Speaking of Leia, one of the most surprising things about the entire film is simply the fact that she doesn't die---and Luke does. We all expected her to be written out in some dramatic fashion after the tragic passing of Carrie Fisher. But Leia doesn't merely survive---she actively refuses to die.

When Tie Fighters under the command of Kylo Ren blast the command deck of Leia's ship, it looks like everyone in the vicinity is killed. We even see Leia floating in space. But then her eyes flutter and she reaches out and uses the Force to pull herself back to the ship. She defies death---and the vacuum of space---to survive and fight another day. It's a really awesome moment that I certainly didn't see coming.

It's also really cool to see Leia given this moment with the Force. We've been told she's strong in the Force, but unlike Luke or Rey she's never given any lightsaber duels or cool moments. She just feels things happen---her use of the Force is almost passive in previous films. Here, however, it's active and astonishing. It may not be the send-off we expected in this film, but it's the one Leia deserved.

Kylo Ren doesn't turn after he kills Snoke.

Kylo Ren doesn't follow the character arc we expected in 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi.'Credit: Disney/LucasFilm

Kylo Ren is easily the most interesting character in the new Star Wars films---played with a raw intensity by Adam Driver that's simply mesmerizing. When it comes down to it, he's unable to pull the trigger and kill his mother, leaving that to his henchmen. It makes us wonder: Could he still be saved?

I wasn't really expecting Kylo Ren to turn from the Dark side in this film though, like everyone else, I thought he might be Episode IX. Still, that expectation was blown to pieces when he cleverly tricked his master, Snoke, killing him with Rey's confiscated lightsaber. I didn't expect that at all, and assumed we'd have Snoke around until the end of the next movie. I also expected to learn who Snoke was---but The Last Jedi dispensed with all that, killing off the cartoonish villain with tidy expediency.

After betraying his master, Kylo Ren helps Rey fight Snoke's personal body guards in one of the coolest fight scenes in any Star Wars movie. The fight is brutal, beautifully choreographed, and the entire time we're watching we think that Kylo Ren has turned. We expect Kylo and Rey to join forces afterward and rush off to save the day and save the Resistance transports from the First Order.

Instead, Kylo Ren tells her to "let old things die." Far from turning to the Light, we discover that Kylo merely has feelings for Rey and thinks they'd make a good power couple. He wants the two of them to rule together over a new galactic order. "Don't do this," she tells him, and we can only nod along in agreement. It's a pretty fantastic twist. Unlike his grandfather, after killing his master there is no moment of self-realization. Luke may have been right about the goodness remaining in Vader, but Rey---and audiences along with her---were wrong about Ben Solo.

Rey comes from nobody.

Rey isn't Luke's long lost daughter.Credit: Disney/LucasFilm

There was a series of books I read as a kid and still love by Lloyd Alexander, The Prydain Chronicles. In the fourth book (spoiler warning) called Taran Wanderer, the main character, Taran, goes off in search of his parents. He's an orphan raised by an old wizard, who knows nothing of his origins. He's also in love with a princess and thinks that if only he comes from royal blood, maybe he'll be able to be worthy of her love.

It's a wonderful book of self discovery. Taran thinks he's found his father at one point, and he's crushed to learn that the man is just a shepherd. When he discovers this is all a lie, he's relieved and continues on his journey, seeking out a magical mirror that will show him everything he seeks. After many adventures he finds the mirror but when he looks into it he sees only his reflection staring back. He never learns who is parents are, but he finds himself along this path nonetheless. It's a powerful realization, but also a bitter pill to swallow.

And so it is with Rey in The Last Jedi. Like Luke in his cave in The Empire Strikes Back, Rey enters a cave on Luke's little island. She finds a magical mirror there, and sees a projection of herself stretched out into infinity. While Luke sees himself in Vader during his vision quest, Rey ends up simply staring at her reflection. Unlike Luke, she is not part of some mythical dynasty. She's not part of a legend of a chosen one sent to bring balance to the Force.

She's the daughter of drunks who sold her for alcohol money. She's nobody. Like the broom boy at the end of the film, she comes from nothing. So much for fan theories, and good riddance. Taran Wanderer would have been so much less powerful had Taran discovered he was the long lost son of a king. (And yes, for you Game of Thrones fans out there, I feel the same way about certain parental revelations in those books/TV show, the more I think about it.) Likewise, if Rey had been the daughter of Luke or Obi-Wan or Kylo Ren's sister, the entire thing would have felt much more contrived. As with Snoke's non-importance, being able to let go of Rey's ancestry is surprisingly liberating.

On Crait, when we see Finn driving his speeder toward the gullet of the battering ram canon, we think for a moment that he's done for, that the first major death of a new Star Wars hero is upon us. That's when Rose crashes into him, throwing him off his path. He's angry, telling her that she's stopped him from destroying their enemies. Why did she save him?

It's at this point that Rose offers up the most profound wisdom of the film. The Resistance won't beat the First Order by fighting the things they hate, she tells him, but rather by saving the things they love. In the end, those two efforts may not be entirely distinguishable, but the outlook is decidedly different.

In many ways, this is how I feel about The Last Jedi. The film is such a departure from The Force Awakens and from the Star Wars we know and love, but in many ways Rian Johnson is doing his best to save the thing he loves. Yes, Star Wars could get by on slick nostalgia alone. But more dark lords and deathstars are just enemies to fight. The Last Jedi makes sure we understand that it's about so much more than that.

It's about more than a stuffy Jedi Order, more than a dynastic Skywalker family, more than a fight between a fascist dictatorship and an antiquated monarchy. The Last Jedi democratized the Force. And it took the nostalgia-steeped The Force Awakens and tossed it over its shoulder. Thank goodness.